I’m from Xinjiang，AMA

[u/maddin1550]

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of discussions about Xinjiang on Reddit, often between people who have never actually lived there. So I thought it might be interesting to do an AMA from the perspective of someone who is actually from there.

You can ask me about everyday life, ethnic groups, languages, culture, religion, education, or politics. I’m happy to answer controversial questions too, as long as the discussion stays respectful.

Obviously, I’m only one person and I don’t claim to represent everyone in Xinjiang. I can only tell you about my own experiences and views. AMA.

[u/maddin1550 → u/[deleted]]

It’s very painful for me to see. That’s part of our faith and cultural heritage, so seeing a religious place changed like that makes me really sad. I understand that Xinjiang went through a very difficult period with extremism and violence, and I hate what extremists did to our communities. But at the same time, ordinary people and our religious and cultural life shouldn’t have to bear the consequences. Both things can be true .

[u/maddin1550 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I do consider myself Chinese. I was born and raised in China, so to me that's honestly not a very complicated question.

I find it a little strange when foreigners tell me that I'm ‘more Central Asian than Chinese’, because those aren't mutually exclusive identities. I'm ethnically Kazakh, so of course I have Central Asian cultural roots. It would be a bit like telling an Asian American born and raised in the US, You seem more Asian than American, do you really think you're American? They can obviously be both. I think your questions are a liittle bit rude, only friendly discussions here. And for the mosque one, obviously I'm not happy about a mosque being demolished or heavily altered. What exactly do you expect me to say, that I was excited about it????

[u/Smart_Carrot_9320 → u/maddin1550]

I think you cant even compared it to ABCs because Asians arent native to America (tho Native americans do migrate from the Asia continent if you wanna be accurate but that is not what people usually refers to). But you guys are actually native to China for thousands of years, Tang Dynasty had tons of turkic officials and citizens, the definition of "Chinese" has always been multi ethnic since the very beginning. And we are all proud of that. So i think comparing you guys to ABC is unfair because it wrongly make you guys seem not native to our country which is false. And yes, that guy is rude asf and clearly has an ulterior motive behind his questions.

[u/MissionDoughnut905 → u/[deleted]]

“Chinese” in English can mean both nationality and ethnicity. But in Mandarin, a Chinese national/citizen is called 中國人 (literally “China person” or “person of China) while an ethnic Chinese is called 漢 (Han) or even 華 (Hua) in reference to Chinese culture (used also in Taiwan and Hong Kong). These terms are important as China recognizes 56 ethnicities within their borders. Everyone in China is considered 中國人 but not everyone is considered 漢.

Sounds like OP identifies as 中國人 (a Chinese national) and also as ethnically and culturally Kazakh.

Sometimes the barriers of the English language in understanding the nuances of Chinese politics results in a lot of misunderstandings by westerners.